A Cranberry Township native pleaded guilty Thursday in Athens County, Ohio, to charges in connection with the 2018 hazing death of an Ohio University student.

Cullen Willi McLaughlin, 21, was sentenced to participate in the Athens County Empowerment program, a rehabilitation program for those pleading guilty to low-level offenses, after he pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of LSD, a fifth-degree felony in Ohio.

Those charges were filed against McLaughlin following an investigation into the November 2018 hazing of a Sigma Pi Fraternity student at Ohio University. According to Athens prosecutor Keller J. Blackburn, that student, 18-year-old Collin Lewis Wiant, died at a house located near the university, where several fraternity brothers lived.

Along with McLaughlin, two other defendants — Dominic A. Figliola, of Athens, and Zachary Herskovitz, of Coraopolis — pleaded guilty to other charges related to Wiant's death. Figliola, 21, pleaded guilty to two felony drug possession counts and misdemeanor charges of hazing and violating underage alcohol laws, and 21-year-old Herskovitz pleaded guilty to permitting drug abuse.

“Dominic Figliola and Cullen McLaughlin were part of a cycle of hazing that has existed within the Ohio University Sigma Pi fraternity for years,” Blackburn said in a Thursday press release.

“Each class, after being hazed, waited until their turn to inflict the same or worse on the next class. Hopefully, these cases and legislative changes can end this practice that exists in too many organizations across this country.”

According to a lawsuit filed against the fraternity and several members including McLaughlin by the Wiant family, Wiant died inside the Athens home around 3 a.m. Nov. 12, 2018. The lawsuit states a toxicology report identified his cause of death to be asphyxiation due to ingestion of nitrous oxide.

The family's lawsuit did not specifically state what they believed McLaughlin's role in Wiant's death to be, although they state — and in his answer to the lawsuit, McLaughlin agreed — that he was in the house when Wiant died.

McLaughlin's guilty plea will be held in abeyance during his participation in the ACE program. Upon successful completion, the case against him would be dismissed.